The Confluence

Entries with the tag: philadelphia flyers

Without direct competition from the NFL, NBC drew good numbers for NHL coverage on Sunday.

The Penguins’ win over the Flyers drew a 1.3 overnight rating on NBC Sunday afternoon, up 18% from a 1.1 for the network’s third NHL telecast last season (Red Wings/Penguins, 2/8/09), and up 63% from a 0.8 for Blackhawks/Red Wings last week.

The 1.3 overnight is tied as the highest for any non-Winter Classic regular season NHL telecast since NBC’s debut NHL telecast in ‘06 (1.5/3).

FSN Pittsburgh has suspended a veteran producer for failing to provide NHL replay officials in Toronto all video footage of a disputed goal disallowed to a Philadelphia Flyers player last Thursday in a Penguins’ loss at Mellon Arena.

Lowell MacDonald, Jr., 45, has been suspended indefinitely, the Tribune-Review learned today, as part of FSN Pittsburgh’s investigation. The NHL was not directly involved in the investigation.

“There is nothing more important than the integrity of the game. During last Thursday’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers, a definitive replay of a Flyers goal was not aired prior to the conclusion of the official review and, as a result, a Flyers goal was not awarded. Fortunately, this did not change the outcome of the game. Nonetheless, FSN Pittsburgh’s failure to provide video to the league officials in a timely fashion was wholly unacceptable,” FSN Pittsburgh said in a statement.

It wasn’t too long ago that Sidney Crosby wasn’t very good at all in the shootout. Coming into this season, Sid was 12-for-38 for a 31.5 percent clip.

Chalk it up to his new sticks, his new shoot-more mentality, whatever you want, but Sid is now batting 1.000 for the season with his fifth shootout goal in as many attempts after tonight’s game-deciding goal to give the Penguins a 3-2 win over the Flyers and a sweep of their home-and-home series.

Crosby also scored his 22nd goal of the season to tie the game at 2-2 for the Pens, while Bill Guerin scored as well. And to top it off, they both came on the revamped powerplay.

The Flyers-Penguins rivalry is one of the best in hockey. And tonight’s 5-4 win by Pittsburgh was another dandy. But there’s good, hard-nosed, vicious, physical hockey, and then there’s just plain idiotic.

If it is indeed true that Scott Hartnell bit Kris Letang’s finger with just seconds remaining in Thursday night’s game, the Philadelphia Flyers winger should be suspended. I guarantee you the NHL’s hockey operations staff was already looking at the scuffle. But unless there’s clear video evidence of the action, it might be tough to do anything about it.

The incident was sparked by Flyers captain Mike Richards’ colliding with Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, which took the net off and stopped play with 1.2 seconds left in the game. Letang and Hartnell then got entangled; so did Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger and Penguins forward Chris Kunitz (both later received 10-minute misconducts). Letang and Hartnell scuffled and fell to the ice, but there was no clear shot from the game broadcast to see the bite.

If you listen to some of these hockey “experts”, they’ve all but awarded the Stanley Cup to the Philadelphia Flyers.

You know, the ones that added Chris Pronger and Ray Emery, among others.

Well, tonight, facing the actual Stanley Cup champions, their supposed #1 goaltender Emery gave up a 5-spot for the second game in a row, while Pronger was for the most part invisible other than taking part in the requisite Flyers goon squad in the last seconds of the game in the Penguins’ 5-4 win tonight at the Wachovia Center.

The Flyers got a nice bounce of the puck and took advantage of some shoddy Penguins’ defense to surge out to a 3-0 second period lead at the Wachovia Center.

But the frantic Flyers’ crowd wasn’t happy too much longer, as the Penguins finally starting getting some bounces going their way, and Sergei Gonchar’s third period goal turned out to be the series-clincher as the Penguins closed out the Flyers, 5-3.

There was nothing spectacular about it. Wasn’t overly physical. Neither of the teams’ stars lit up the scoreboard.

But the Flyers withstood the opening barrage by the Penguins, where they outshot the Flyers 15-5, albeit without scoring.

Most importantly, Flyers’ goalie Marty Biron was solid. With the exception of one good toe save on an Evgeni Malkin one-timer, Biron had a very workmanlike performance. The Penguins didn’t flood the crease at all like they had been doing, which I’m sure Biron appreciated.

Throw in three goals from “non-stars”, and you’ve got a 3-0 Flyers win in front of a surprisingly quiet Igloo crowd.

In a decision that can’t be described as surprising, IHCDB has inserted Miro Satan into the lineup, replacing Petr Sykora, who has gone absolutely stone cold. Not the best thing for a sniper.

In addition, the Penguins also announced that Kris Letang will be a game-time decision whether he will be in the lineup or not. Although Letang was dinged up late in Game 4, IHCDB said after the morning skate that “the decisions that we made today were not based on injuries.” If Letang is not in the lineup, he’ll be replaced by veteran defenseman Philippe Boucher.

They got back to playing sound defense, and most importantly, got an outstanding performance from Marc-Andre Fleury with 45 saves to give the Penguins a commanding 3-1 series advantage with a 3-1 win over the Flyers tonight at the Wachovia Center.

The Flyers threw everything but the kitchen sink at Fleury, but he made several excellent saves to preserve a Penguins lead until midway through the third period when they finally scored. That would be the only blemish on the scoresheet against him, though.

It didn’t help the Penguins that they gave the Flyers eight powerplay opportunities, but the Pens’ penalty kill was stellar, killing off all eight.

The Flyers executed their gameplan to a “T” on Sunday afternoon against the Penguins. They took advantage of their frenzied crowd, hit everything that moved, and eventually coasted to a 6-3 win.

But what they did best was to sucker the Penguins into playing like the Flyers. That is, get involved in post-whistle scrums, face washes and take undisciplined, unnecessary penalties.

To be clear, however, I am NOT including the crushing hit that Chris Kunitz laid on Kimmo Timonen early in the game. That was the perfect hit and the perfect time in the game, with the Pens getting down two goals very early. This despite claims from the Philadelphia media that Kunitz seemingly hit Timonen with a 2x4.

Surely, the ultimate authorities for legal hockey hitting are the Philadelphia media. Puhleeze.

Sorry for the tardiness, had other stuff going on today, just finished watching the game.

It was bound to happen eventually. A Penguins team that played reactionary instead of proactively. A defense that was caught numerous times out of position. And, a goaltender that was not making the breathtaking saves.

That was the game in a nutshell.

The Flyers scored on their first two shots, and although the Penguins eventually tied the game, couldn’t match the Flyers’ offensive aggression around their net, losing 6-3 in Game Three.

Even in defeat, you have to give a tip of the hat for the Flyers’ effort in Game Two. They put themselves in a position to gain a huge split in Pittsburgh, and up until the 16:23 mark of the third period, sure as hell looked like that was going to come to fruition.

In many ways, they performed like the Penguins did in Game One, controlling the play and making the Penguins play on their heels. Didn’t result in a win, mind you, but it very well could (some say, should) have.

However, while I objectively give much credit to the Flyers’ performance, it’s also fair to note that they were aided by an unusually sloppy Penguins team (in the IHCDB era, at least) who seemed to be playing in a bit of a funk all night long.

Despite playing a much better game, and defending a one-goal lead with three minutes to go, in the end it was the same old liability that ended up biting the Flyers square on the buttocks.

Penalties.

A late third period hooking penalty on Jeff Carter gave the Penguins the powerplay it needed, resulting in the tying goal to eventually get the game to overtime. But it was two terrible Flyers’ penalties in overtime that gave the Penguins a 5-on-3 powerplay, where Bill Guerin’s wrister past Marty Biron lifted the Penguins to a 3-2 comeback win over the Flyers. The Penguins now hold a 2-0 lead with the series heading to Philadelphia for Game Three on Sunday.

One of the bigger keys in this series in my view was going to be the Flyers’ attempt at defending the balanced attack of the Penguins.

For one game anyway the Pens passed that test with flying colors. All four of the Penguins’ lines regularly came at the Flyers with speed and controlled the play for the majority of the game, fueling the Pens to a dominating 4-1 win over the Flyers tonight at the Igloo.

Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin both scored for the Penguins, while Marc-Andre Fleury, who didn’t really have to be spectacular, made 26 saves for the big Game One win.

Conversely, Flyers’ goalie Martin Biron continued to have his problems vs. the Penguins. Biron stopped 29 of 33 shots, but allowed a couple of goals that some might consider to be of the soft variety.

As we really start ramping up on Playoff Eve, the folks at the New York Times have graciously offered me the opportunity to be the Penguins’ blogger for the playoffs in their “Hockey Night in Blogdom” feature series.

Of course, my allegiance to KK will not suffer, but this will be fun as well. The first post should be up soon.

We’re gonna do a quick contest prior to the start of the Penguins/Flyers playoff series on Wednesday night. Mountain Dew, in promoting their new Mountain Dew Voltage® drink, are giving away two Voltage prize packs that will include Voltage product and T-shirts. Voltage is charged with raspberry citrus and ginseng. It’s great for giving drinkers a much-needed energy kick. Last year, over a quarter million votes helped Mountain Dew Voltage win the DEWmocracy election. The taste, name and color of all three ‘candidates’ were also developed by DEW fans. Mountain Dew® is also running an online sweepstakes to promote the new drink by offering them a chance to win great prizes such as gaming gear, iPods and snowboards. You can check it out at this link.

Penguins-Flyers Playoff Series Opens Wednesday at Mellon Arena. The Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers will open the Stanley Cup Playoffs Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Mellon Arena. Game 2 of the best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinal series will be played Friday at 7 p.m. at Mellon Arena. The series shifts to Philadelphia for Games 3 and 4 on Sunday and next Tuesday.

The teams tied with 99 points in the Eastern Conference standings, but the Penguins got the fourth seed – and home-ice advantage in the series – on the basis of more wins, 45 to 44. NBC will televise Game 3 nationally (and Game 6, if necessary). All other games will be televised locally by FSN Pittsburgh. All games may be heard on 105.9 The X and the Penguins radio network.

What seemed unfathomable not even two months ago is now a reality. Not only did the Penguins make the playoffs when it was looking quite likely they may not, but now they’ve got home-ice advantage, for at least one round anyway.

The Rangers scored two third-period goals in Philly tonight for a 4-3 win over the Flyers, giving the Penguins home-ice advantage in their first-round playoff matchup against Philadelphia.

Give the Rangers a ton of credit, they had absolutely nothing to gain in today’s game. But they played one helluva intense game, surely playing in Philly didn’t hurt that intensity.

In the scoresheet, it’ll just show a Sidney Crosby goal at 17:15 of the third period. But anybody who watched this hockey game will tell you it was anything but normal.

Crosby’s deflection of a Pascal Dupuis pass, coming after Martin Biron had to release the puck about 20 feet out of his crease, ended up being the game-winner for the Penguins in their 5-4 win this afternoon in Philly over the Flyers.

Michel Therrien has been criticized a helluva lot lately, including by yours truly. But for at least one game, he certainly pulled all the right strings in a huge 4-2 win over the Flyers in Philly.

Therrien employed a 1-2-2 trap that effectively shutdown the Flyers’ high-flying offense, while placing rugged winger Matt Cooke on the first line with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin to provide a little protection and to bang some bodies in front of the net.

Both moves worked to a “T”, and neither the Flyers, their fans, nor even their bush-league organist leading the “Crosby sucks” cheers could do anything to stop them.

If there ever comes a time, particularly after another one of these harrowing Penguin wins, that you don’t eventually read something from me, I’m here to let you know beforehand; The Penguins will have done me in.

In tonight’s episode of “Try to Give Tony a Heart Attack”, after controlling most the game with a 3-0 lead, the Penguins let their collective feet off the gas and allowed the next four goals, two of those short-handed, only to score late in regulation and eventually win in the shootout over the Flyers, 5-4.